Address to the Association of Women Barristers' Annual General Meeting

Lady Justice Arden compared the relatively low numbers of women judges to international jurisdictions such as Canada and India, and how England and Wales might follow suit.

“Women have not done as well as I for one would have expected in the last two and a half years or so. But we must try not to look at the mud, and be discouraged. Even a little bit of progress now (and surely there has got to be some progress sometime soon!) would represent a great breakthrough. It would be hugely symbolic as an acceptance that women candidates have the requisite merit. But we want progress, real progress and progress that we can believe in. Any progress also has to be maintained. The flow may start as a trickle, but it must become a regular stream.”